


Happy Beginnings

by PFDiva



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Post-Finale, Twilight Mirage, mourning maybe, outside perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 18:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16045670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: They fought for a world where people wouldn't know who they were.  They were mostly successful.





	Happy Beginnings

Flip, jiggle, blow fire. Swing arm, whir and vibrate, splay flat. Palisade Sybilline watched Arbit perform. From a safe distance, of course. Palisade was an artist, not a mechanic. There was something hypnotic and soothing about watching Arbit go through its motions, no two alike, nothing repeated. After an hour of watching, that was one thing Palisade was sure of--nothing repeated.

Palisade watched a mechanic step up, her hands planted on her hips as she watched Arbit move. She had strong arms, half-braided hair that was half-afro gone pale from the sand. She was gorgeous and Palisade gave up watching Arbit for a bit to watch her.

The mechanic, after a few minutes of frowning at Arbit, tied her hair back into a puff of curls at her nape, then sidled around Arbit to where another mechanic was so far failing to get close enough. Palisade had been watching him and his length of metal pipe, off and on, since arriving. He had short-cropped hair an indeterminate brown color, clothing entirely inappropriate for the weather, and a gradually decreasing bravado. He also had a pretty fantastic black eye from when Arbit had walloped him one. He was lucky not to have been killed. Some parts of Arbit were incredibly sharp.

Palisade was too far to hear what the first mechanic said to the second, but he perked up, the pair having a brief, animated discussion about….well, who knew what they were talking about? Eventually, the man crouched low, holding firmly onto the pipe while the woman hefted the pipe over her shoulder. As Palisade watched, they charged Arbit together. Arbit flipped at just the right time for the pair to shove the pipe in. Arbit jittered, revved twice, then spat oil at the desert sands. The pair fought Arbit, visibly straining.

All of a sudden, whatever they were fighting gave way, dumping both to the ground. Something metallic went flying overhead and there was a ragged chorus of cheers before several people converged on the pair to pull them out of Arbit's danger radius. They were just in time. Arbit crabwalked backwards three steps, then spun in a buzzing circle.

"What are they even doing to it?" complained a voice behind Palisade.

The voice turned out to belong to an old man. Very, very old. Vaguely familiar, but mostly old. Maybe he's helped do other repairs for Arbit. Maybe he flew with Waltz Tango (Cache) once. Palisade didn't know and mentally shrugged off the familiarity.

"It looked like they were doing a repair?"

"It's  _supposed_ to spit fire," he grumbled, plopping down next to Palisade uninvited.

"Only since the last year."

He made a sharp, dismissive gesture, and then slumped back in his seat, going very still like he was accessing the Splice. Palisade wondered what was so interesting that it could take him away from Arbit.

Then Palisade got an alert something interesting was happening on the splice and got comfortable in their seat before accessing it.

It was The Steady, where one could always find the Mod. She was passing out drinks, chatting with people, and welcoming the new arrivals who, like Palisade, had alerts set for when the Splice did something cool. Palisade's table had cross stitch coasters made with blue thread. Palisade idly ran fingers over the texture, enjoying it and doing more people-watching.

There were people from all over the Quire system in the Steady, and people from outside of it, too. The Mod lived far away now, but she could still watch over this system.

Palisade watched The Mod stop at the old man's table. It was too far away to hear what they said, but it was clear that he was griping and she was rolling her eyes in amusement. She set a drink down for him without asking--she never needed to ask what people wanted to drink--then sashayed away from his table with a dismissive wiggle of her fingers. She looked like she knew him. Like they were friends.

Who was that guy?

The Mod eventually brought Palisade fruit juice that was just a little sweet, with a fresh tang that hit the spot. Palisade beamed gratitude for the drink, then pointed at the old man.

"Who is that?"

The Mod shrugged dismissively, "Noone you'd know. Trust me, if he wanted you to know him, you would."

Behind the Mod, Palisade noticed someone approaching the old man's table. It was a person dressed like an instructor from the Reverie school. They came by Arbit a lot. This one was about the same age as the old man, maybe a little younger, with blue hair pulled back into a ponytail, and he was with Gig Kephert, who was definitely old by now.

It took Palisade a moment, and then: "Is….is that Echo Reverie and Gig Kephert?"

The Mod laughed, silvery and sweet, patting Palisade on the shoulder, "Enjoy your juice." She walked away and Palisade continued to watch.

Echo sat down next to the old man, deliberately bumping into him as they sat, while Gig took a seat across the table. In a very short period of time, the conversation seemed to turn into argument, Gig and the old man jabbing fingers at each other across the table while Echo alternated between making placating gestures and rolling their eyes. Palisade caught snatches of their words on the air (wow, Gig Kephert was really just Like That) and it seemed to be about jellyjuice? Which was a really stupid thing to argue about, honestly.

The argument was interrupted by a woman in a wheelchair rolling up with a potted plant in her lap. Everyone at the table sobered and she set it in the middle of the table. The people already at the table began looking around, as if someone was missing from the group.

The last person turned out to be a strange beetle guy. He had wings and long hair twisted into a low knot. He joined them and the Mod appeared, almost out of nowhere. She gave him a hug, squeezed Echo's shoulder, smiled at Gig.

Then the woman in the wheelchair began talking and even the Mod sat down to listen. Palisade couldn't hear what she said, but it clearly involved everyone at that table. They seemed to be mourning or honoring someone or...something. It was curious. It ended with the woman handing her potted plant to the Mod, who added the plant to the many taking up one wall of the Steady.

The group began dispersing after that. Echo lingered to talk to the old man, and the beetle guy had a long, earnest conversation with Gig. When they'd all gone, Palisade got up for a look at the table they'd sat at.

It was gold, decorated with pretty gems. There was a gun in the center, with a rose set into the handle. Usually such a design would call for two to balance it, but this table just had one. It was an adventurous choice. Not the typical style of the Steady, but not abnormal either. Definitely pretty.

Palisade left the table and headed towards the plant wall for a better look at the potted plant.


End file.
